1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a centrifugal separator and the maintenance thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
If the drive unit or rotor of a conventional centrifugal separator becomes damaged while a customer is using the centrifugal separator, such damage can have an enormous effect on the customer's business, not only due to the loss of the sample undergoing centrifugation and the cost of repair work to the centrifugal separator, but also due to the lost time while the centrifugal separator is being repaired.
Since the customer might suffer great losses when the drive unit or rotor break down or incur damage, the life of the drive unit and rotor is specified in advance. Here, the life of the drive unit denotes the estimated usage time, while the life of the rotor denotes the estimated number of uses and the usage time. Operation records of the drive unit and rotor must be maintained so that these components are not used past their estimated life. Conventionally, the user has had to meticulously record the operation records each time the centrifugal separator was used. A centrifugal separator capable of automating the management of the operation records described above is also well known in the art. Such centrifugal separators that employ a method for managing operation records and a method for managing the rotor life have been disclosed in Japanese patent No. 2671642 and Japanese patent-application publication No. 2001-104835.